Friday, 17 February 2017

Torture in Turkish prisons

Just read a report about the torture of prisoners in Turkey and
it has shocked me.

According to the report, on 23 January, the prison’s
vice-director raided a 5-person dormitory together with a group of
20 wardens and tortured prisoners Sahin Encu, Kemal Kahraman,
Hakan Bilekci, Ahmet Celik and Ozhan Ceyhun, who were then exiled
to separate prisons.

Prison wardens were told over the tannoy to remain in their
positions in the evening. That night the vice-director and around
20 wardens raided the dormitory. Referring to an infamous torturer
he told them ‘I am going to be your Esat Oktay. You must defer to
me. I am the God here,'”

The prisoners were initially beaten in front of cameras. The 5
prisoners were taken to an area underneath the stairwell and
beaten severely.It was also reported that the prisoners had
been thrown in isolation cells following the torture, with some
suffering concussion. They were taken to the local hospital but
doctors refused to give them medical reports confirming the
torture.

Turkey’s Human Rights Association had previously released a
report in October detailing hundreds of cases of torture and human
rights violations between 15 July and 15 October.

The comparison made by the vice-director with Esat Oktay Yildiran
is sinister.

Esat Oktay Yildiran was the infamous torturer in the 1980s decade
whose torture of Kurdish and leftist prisoners led to the death of
more than 30 such prisoners between 1981-84.

I would ask you as a human being to ensure that no more torture
takes place in Turkey and that Sahin Encu, Kemal Kahraman, Hakan
Bilekci, Ahmet Celik and Ozhan Ceyhun are given proper hospital
treatment and are never again molested by prison officers or
others; and that all prisoners are treated humanely while in
custody, given fair trials promptly and released when they have
been tried by a fair and impartial tribunal and are found not
guilty of crimesl.